Alvarna Rhapsody
by abernaith
Summary: Follow the twists and turns in the love lives of the villagers of Alvarnia. Warning: major SLASH content
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Alvarna Rhapsody  
**Author:** abernaith  
**Summary:** All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.  
**Warnings:** This chapter is actually a mild T, or even a K+. Later chapters, however, will contain light M. Since I'm playing it safe with the ratings, the series will have a general M rating.  
**Further Notes: **I enjoy playing the Rune Factory games in my DS, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that RF2's characters are much more fleshed out in many ways that RF's characters are not. The idea for this fic came to me gradually as I followed the drama of the villagers. It was a supreme delight working with these characters for myself.  
**Disclaimer: **This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

**ALVARNA RHAPSODY**  
**A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production**

**THE FIRST MOVEMENT: Gossip**

That night, the girls of Alvarna congregated in their respective bases. Alicia, Mana, and Cecilia gathered at Mana's room. Dorothy, Julia, and Rosalind met at Dorothy's room. Neither group knew that what they were about to reveal to each other was really all about their favorite innocent farm boy…

The glow of the lamp warmed the huge stones of the church's back rooms. These rooms were once used for storage, way before Gordon came to the town as a priest with his two little girls in tow. Julia decided that the ambience was perfect for her tale, and so she began…

It was about that time in the afternoon when Julia was supposed to take her quick break. She was supposed to nip off to the Parts store, but then she had forgotten something. (Not even in the privacy of Dorothy's room would Julia admit to her girl friends, however, that she had neglected to put on fresh lipstick before stepping out the door that afternoon.)

Julia had rushed back into the bathhouse when, to her surprise, she heard noises in the men's bath area. There were only two possible customers at that particular time: Jake, being the most likely. Julia knew he liked to be left alone when bathing, and so arranged his bath at the time when Julia leaves the building for her break. Julia wasn't offended by that, really, as she preferred to leave Jake alone.

As for the second person, however, Julia suspected that he was none other than her favorite person in Alvarna—Kyle! The noises she heard were indeed very strange and her ears turned bright red. She had wanted to investigate their origins and determine the people who were making these noises. But then, in the end, she got too flustered and embarrassed. At that point, she decided to escape to the Parts store before things got out of hand (i.e. before she fainted).

The three girls sigh deeply at the end of the tale. It was certainly unexpected. The whole thing sounded so unbelievable, but Julia was never one to make up stories. That was more Rosalind's specialty, after all. After a moment spent individually contemplating Julia's story, the girls decided to hear what Dorothy has to say.

Dorothy also had a similarly odd experience of hearing strange noises. This time though, it was in Trieste Forest. She hadn't gone there since the last time Barrett took her there on a festival, purportedly because she was the quietest girl in the village and he would not have to speak to her. (Although, Dorothy suspected he had really taken her out on a date.)

Dorothy recalled hearing moans and sighs. At first, she had wanted to rush to the source of these sounds, thinking it was someone terribly injured that they could not even call for help. But then, her keen ears picked up not one but two distinct voices in the forest. And after a while, she heard quite acutely that both voices were moaning and groaning. It took maybe just a couple or so loud heartbeats in Dorothy's ears before the first of the screams pierced the silence of the forest. It wasn't someone screaming in pain, no. It was the kind of scream when someone has failed to hold back the onslaught of ecstasy…

A supremely flustered Dorothy all but collapsed onto her bed, exhausted and hyperventilating. It proved too much for her, remembering that ordeal…

While Julia and Rosalind saw to their friend's health, the other group was gathering around Mana's bed to share their own stories. Mana and Alicia hugged pillows and sat rapt in attention as Cecilia began her tale…

Cecilia was going about her tasks around the mansion's kitchen when she thought she heard a loud thump like a heavy weight falling onto the floorboards right above her. Thinking that Max had gone into another of his 'secret' hissy fits when he can't find his favorite musical composition, she had gone up to his room to inquire discreetly of his condition. She had only taken a few steps toward his door when she noticed it was ajar.

She could pick up two voices from within the room with her sharp, elven hearing. She recognized one easily as that belonging to Max, but the other one was oddly muffled, and she could only make out that it was definitely a male voice. Cecilia wondered if Max's father, Herman, was in there and possibly choking on a bone. But then Max's voice rang clear, saying, "If I had known that you'd be such a pretty sight like this, I'd have kept this scarf when you first offered it to me." Cecilia was so puzzled by what she heard that she barely stepped away in time before the door opened just a little wider to let Max slip out of his room.

Half the buttons of Max's shirt were unbuttoned, he had a satisfied glow about him, and he was wearing a bright RED SCARF.

At this, Mana couldn't help but gasp. Hadn't she knitted a RED SCARF for her favorite farm boy not so long ago? Before Mana could work herself into a fit, Alicia deftly caught the others' attention with her words.

The day began auspiciously, as all days were auspicious to a fortune-teller, at least until proven otherwise. It was also predictable of Alicia that her tale would start on an iffy note. Reluctantly, she admitted that she was spying on her favorite farm boy's whereabouts via her psychic abilities.

Alicia was immensely pleased when her location spell had pinpointed Kyle's whereabouts. He was often running around Alvarna on errands or adventures and sailing every day to Blessia Island so much so that it was futile to keep track of him. According to the spell, however, Kyle was currently on Blessia Island. Alicia knew that Yue sometimes set up shop there, and it was always a pain when that happens, because she is another rival for Kyle's heart. But then, Alicia remembered doing a location spell earlier on the merchant and found her in Messhina Valley entrance, as far away as possible from her favorite farm boy.

She was thinking of making even better fortune for herself by letting Kyle run an errand for her. She would have him collect some GREEN GRASS for her dear brother, Ray, who was currently working on a personal project to record the flora in Alvarna and its surrounding environs and list all their medicinal properties. She knew that GREEN GRASS only grew in summer, and Blessia Island was the perfect place to find it. Since that island was filled with monsters that her little brother—wuss that he is—would definitely avoid at all costs, it made sense to let Kyle do the work for him. Alicia thought it was a perfect plan. It would be like hitting two birds with one stone, getting Kyle to come to her, and then helping her brother out as a bargain. All that Alicia had to do now was convince Ray to have Kyle fetch GREEN GRASS for him.

She went hurriedly to her mom's clinic to talk to her little brother, but then found the reception foyer empty. Her mother promptly told her that Ray was already out with Kyle--ostensibly to collect the very GREEN GRASS that was central to Alicia's plot. This made Alicia furious, of course, and she sought out her brother with a location spell. Indeed, he was in Blessia Island with Kyle!

Alicia spent the rest of the day fuming at the port, and her foul mood deterred customers from approaching her all day. It was close to 6 PM when Alicia finally spotted the boat making its way to port from Blessia Island. Kyle and Ray hopped out of the boat and made their way up to the town. They would have passed Alicia by without even a greeting if she hadn't called out to Ray in her sweetest, acid-laced voice.

She saw that the two boys were grimy. They both had grass stains on their hands, elbows, knees, and bums. They both looked flushed, exhausted perhaps from wasting a perfectly good day for romance on fighting monsters and picking weeds. She inquired politely to Kyle if they were successful in acquiring some GREEN GRASS. Ray was immediately suspicious of his sister's words and asked, quite harshly, how she knew about that. But then Kyle distracted both siblings with his cry of panic. It turned out that they had forgotten to pack the GREEN GRASS. When Alicia asked why they'd forget such a thing, Kyle and Ray just gave each other this LOOK and then they shared a private laugh. Alicia had this very strange feeling of being a third wheel then and there. She wisely shut up and let the two boys make their way up the town together, their arms brushing companionably.

The girls of Alvarna collectively hugged their pillows tighter against their heaving bosoms. Of all the tales that they have heard (and they have heard a fair share already), these stories are by far the wildest and most terrifying. Unbeknownst to one another, each girl expelled a secret sigh into her pillow, mouthing the name of their favorite, perhaps not so innocent, farm boy.

-%-


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Alvarna Rhapsody  
**Author:** abernaith  
**Summary:** All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.  
**Warnings:** This chapter is rated T.  
**Disclaimer: **This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

**ALVARNA RHAPSODY**  
**A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production**

**FUGUE: Yue**

Yue has seen it all.

At least, she'd like to think so. She certainly makes it a point to claim so to her customers. It adds mystique to her merchant persona, and she'd like to think that people thought her wise rather than pretentious or simply eccentric.

Right now, though, Yue wished that she could claim otherwise. She definitely did not want to believe what she was seeing.

It started out as a fine day, as all days started out for her kind. All days when her feet found a purposeful path and her merchandise found themselves in happy customers' hands were, after all, fine days. On such a fine day, Yue had chosen to take a light brunch by the mirror pool, just off Cherry Blossom Square. Almost no one came there, she had discovered a while back. It was the perfect spot to enjoy a couple of cabbage cakes which she only allowed herself to eat once a month except on the month of her birthday.

On what started out to be a fine day, Yue certainly hadn't expected to receive the shock of her life.

She was walking out of the clearing and into the Square proper, when something stopped her dead in her tracks. It was something she saw—no, spied was the more accurate term—from the corner of her eyes. On the bench in the farthest corner of the square, under the shadow of the largest of the cherry trees, sat Barrett and Kyle.

At first, Yue couldn't be sure what they were doing. They sat close to each other—too close, in fact. Kyle had his arms around Barrett's shoulders and his hands clasped behind Barrett's neck. If they were actually speaking in such a position, they could have done it all in whispers. That was just how close they were. And then Yue saw Barrett's shoulders moving—no, rolling—and his body pressing forward and further into Kyle's space until Yue was certain that what distance lay between the two was far too infinitesimal, and the boys' noses would have been awkwardly mashed by now.

And then, when Yue thought things couldn't get any more awkward, a series of miniscule events took place almost simultaneously that revealed to her the true nature of the vision before her.

The clouds above Alvarna broke apart and the Cherry Blossom Square was bathed in golden sunlight. The fresh morning light filtered through the gaps in the leaves of the cherry trees, creating this almost surreal effect where everything under the shade of the trees wore a soft golden glow. Barrett shifted in his seat and tilted his head forward. Kyle seized the chance to press closer to the other boy and his head was, for one brief moment, in full view to Yue. Eyes closed blissfully, cheeks flushed, and lips pressed fully against Barrett's own in a passionate, devouring, open-mouthed kiss.

It took Yue a huge amount of her not-inconsiderable self-control to not scream and give herself away. She had to thank her lucky stars too that when her brain temporarily shut down, her feet took over her faculties smoothly and led her to the entrance to Padova Mountains where, after several minutes of breathing in the sharp mountain air, Yue was finally able to calm down.

What had started out to be a fine day had almost turned into one of the worst days in Yue's life. For a few moments, she was sure that the world has gone mad and was going to end soon since the man who was the closest ever to be, potentially, husband-material was stolen from her—and by another man! But then, being a true-blue merchant, Yue's keen sense for profit saw the silver lining in this dilemma. Despite being scheduled to be in Blessia Island that afternoon, Yue spent the rest of the day in Padova Mountains, where the cold air kept her wits sharp. She thought it was time well-spent, in the end, when she was polishing the minutiae of her latest marketing venture. She went to sleep that night a supremely satisfied saleslady, with a big smile on her lips, and only the shadow of a tear on the corner of her eye.

-%-


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Alvarna Rhapsody  
**Author:** abernaith  
**Summary:** All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.  
**Warnings:** This chapter is rated T.  
**Disclaimer: **This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

**ALVARNA RHAPSODY**  
**A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production**

**THE SECOND MOVEMENT: Firsts**

_**Part I: Hook, Line, and Sinker**_

The first time Barrett saw Kyle as he had never seen a guy before was when they were fishing for salmon in Messhina Valley. It was an atypical afternoon spent in the most unusual way. Barrett honestly didn't know what came over him when he agreed to go fishing with Mr. Farm Boy.

That image of Kyle always stood stark and clear in his head, before: _Kyle the Farm Boy_. Kyle, who Mana is obsessed with and Dorothy admires. Kyle, who drops by every day to give an eggplant to his father and an iron ore to him. Kyle's tenacious gift-giving streak proved too much even for Barrett. After a while, even he could no longer remain disdainful of his neighbor. He had thought that maintaining a cordial relationship with the Farm Boy by thanking him perfunctorily for the gifts was all that he deserved. But then, Kyle still persisted on his gifts and his thrice-daily visits. In the morning, just after his jog while he caught his breath for a bit at the bridge by the Parts store, Kyle would be there to greet him. In the afternoon, when Barrett would take a break from his projects and catch a cool sea breeze to temper his thoughts at Cherry Blossom Square, Kyle would pass through and never forget to say hello. And then, in the evening, while he would set the table for him and his father, Kyle would drop by for a little chat with the mayor and then, inevitably, poke his head in the dining hall to greet Kyle a good evening. It was frustrating, and slightly embarrassing (although he would never admit this to anyone else), and would have been downright infuriating if Barrett didn't know that Kyle actually did this for everyone else in the village. Barrett didn't know what to make of that. Barrett didn't know what to make of HIM. Kyle was just so..._so_...

"Barrett! Hey, Barrett!" Kyle's concerned voice abruptly snapped Barrett out of his reverie.

Barrett spared his companion a bewildered look. Kyle was pointing at the ripples in the water surrounding his fishing line.

"I think you caught something," Kyle supplied helpfully.

Well, now, isn't that obvious? Barrett suppressed the urge to roll his eyes out of politeness. He focused on reeling in his catch and shifted his grip on his fishing rod to get a better angle. He couldn't wipe the surprise from his face quickly enough when the line refused to budge. At the next instant, Kyle was hovering by his side, eager to help.

"That's a tough one," said Kyle.

Yeah, right, Barrett thought. He kept his mouth shut though, planted his feet on the ground, and pulled. The line still won't budge.

"Here, let me help."

Before he knew it, a pair of hands came around his field of vision. One seized the fishing rod in a tight grip just above Barrett's own hand and the other closed over his own on the reel handle.

In the back of Barrett's mind, it registered that there was a solid weight of another person very close behind him. He didn't have the luxury of time to give that a second thought though as the hands went to work and pulled.

Barrett adjusted his grip on the fishing rod yet again so that he and Kyle could work together more effectively. In no time at all, a salmon leapt out of the water, its lip caught in the hook of Barrett's fishing line. He could hear Kyle give a whoop as the fish seemingly soared over the water and onto the lush grass of the riverbank. In his momentary excitement, Barrett had all but forgotten that Kyle was directly behind him. When he took a sudden back-step to avoid being hit by their latest catch, he inadvertently shoved the other man backwards. Kyle, unwitting, lost his balance and was about to fall flat on his back. Without thinking, Barrett whipped around and hugged Kyle's body protectively as they both fell to the ground. His bare arms met the ground and the impact, which was compounded by Kyle's and his own full weight, had his arms aching to the bone.

Kyle let out a gasp—in shock or pain, Barrett couldn't tell—as he was quite preoccupied with the black spots that were flickering in the corners of his vision. His next priority was to ascertain whether his arms were still attached to the rest of him. Quite reflexively, he drew his arms toward himself, using them to squeeze lightly the body he held around his arms. He was relieved to find that they still more or less functioned as expected.

Someone was clearing his throat. The noise was faint, but what caught Barrett's attention was the rumbling he felt on his chest. The rumbling resumed as Kyle made a few more croaking noises. Belatedly, Barrett realized that the young man was still pinned beneath him.

Kyle's cheeks were red as strawberries, and his eyes were slightly glazed. Barrett only realized now how Kyle's eyes were as blue as the calmest sea. His soft dark brown hair fell in a messy halo around him from the rough fall. With his arms weighed down by Kyle's body, Barrett couldn't brush away the fine strand of hair that fell over one of Kyle's cerulean eyes. Instead, Barrett blew on it softly, his breath ghosting over Kyle's long lashes. It made Kyle blush even harder, if that were possible. It was only when the other boy started squirming under Barrett that he realized the reality of their current predicament.

"Oh," was all the reaction he could give.

"Yes. Oh," came Kyle's soft, flustered voice. Barrett realized that Kyle's voice was markedly deeper, huskier.

"Uh..." Barrett's failed again to give a coherent response. He had also, apparently, failed to take Kyle's hint and roll away. A desperate Kyle tried to communicate his distress through what he hoped seemed like urgent squirming.

"Can...c-can you, uh..." was all Kyle had the breath to say before his body stilled and his eyes grew wide as Barrett's face drew closer and closer to his own.

Barrett was drawn to those blue, blue eyes. He could just drown in them. He just wanted to drown...in...them...

The kiss started out tentative—light, close-mouthed. And then Barrett brushed Kyle's lower lip with his tongue. In his surprise, Kyle gasped and his mouth opened rather involuntarily. Barrett dove in with his tongue, and all coherent thought was lost as both boys succumbed to passion.

It was rather late in the afternoon when Barrett and Kyle got back from their fishing trip. It was too late for Kyle to run more errands but still too early for dinner. Ever-diligent and hard-working Kyle had already accomplished all his other chores, of course, so he had no other excuse to give when he suggested parting ways with Barrett for the day except a flimsy "I need time to digest all this."

It was rather typical of the Kyle he knew, the Kyle-before-this-afternoon that Barrett thought was all that he would have liked to have known about _Kyle the Farm Boy_. But then, now that he had gotten himself a taste of a very, very different Kyle, well, he just couldn't regret what had happened. He just couldn't ignore Kyle anymore either. He knew that he would rather that Kyle liked him now, and maybe even loved—

Barrett stopped himself before he got too sentimental. It wasn't like him to be that way. He was annoyed at himself for getting all soppy like a girl, even if it was just for a moment. He shifted the bucket of fish from one hand to the other. It was hardly weighed down by the afternoon's catch: a couple of chub and a salmon to show for it, nothing more—too light for Barrett's liking. It barely provided an excuse for his disappearance from the town for a whole afternoon.

Well, it wasn't like anyone else was going to make a big deal about it. Barrett knew his father would simply nod at the fish and tell him to stow it away in their fridge. He might even tell him to thank Kyle for the catch, not like he didn't help with the fishing. It was just as well that the mayor of Alvarna remained ignorant of his son's feelings, especially after what had happened between him and Kyle...

The basket weighed too light with their measly catch, but Barrett's heart made up for the weight as he dragged himself home.

-%-


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Alvarna Rhapsody  
**Author:** abernaith  
**Summary:** All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.  
**Warnings:** I'm giving this chapter a K+ although some may consider it a very mild T.  
**Further Notes:** This one turned out rather long. To be honest, Ray was my first crush in RF2, not Barrett. I think it's safe to say it now: all the chapters of this fic can actually be read as one-shots. I had intended to make good use of the title "Alvarna Rhapsody" by adopting the significance of the musical term as part of the overarching theme of my own work. Ah, but this is already getting too technical. ^_^; I'd rather you just read and, hopefully, enjoy!  
**Disclaimer: **This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

**ALVARNA RHAPSODY**  
**A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production**

**THE SECOND MOVEMENT: Firsts**

_**Part II: Late Bloomer**_

Ray took one last look at the Bulletin Board before he went back to the clinic. It was his third attempt at posting that request, and it was only because he forced himself not to reword it again that he succeeded in finally pinning it up for good. Now that he had done so, a heavy burden seemed to have lifted from his shoulders. It was a simple request, really. There was nothing wrong with asking Kyle for one tiny favor. And Kyle was open-minded about things like this, he was sure. Well, he liked to believe that, at least.

Ray went back to his post at the clinic's foyer feeling less worried than he thought he ought to be. The rest, now, is up to fate.

That afternoon, Kyle, predictably, dropped by to say hello. Ray waited with bated breath for Kyle to ask him about his request. Kyle greeted his mom and Dorothy first, of course, and exchanged news about his morning's errands. And then Kyle was at the foyer again, turning towards Ray with his hand waving a casual hello. Before Ray could return the favor, however, Kyle was out the door.

"Oh," Ray sighed. "Oh." His voice was thickly laced with disappointment.

* * *

Later that evening, Ray went out to Alvarna-East End for his nightly stroll. The sea breeze was sure to calm his spirits and put the thoughts whirling in his mind into perspective. Kyle would surely have come to him promptly about his request. There were only a couple of other requests on the board, and he would surely have accomplished them earlier that day. But then, maybe, Ray didn't pin up his request quite right, and an errant breeze blew it off the board. Maybe, maybe a lot of priority requests (presumably from the village girls) came up on the board and Kyle just hadn't had the time to deal with his own request today. Maybe, maybe...

"Ray!"

That was Kyle's voice! Ray snapped out of his gloom and turned toward the young man running his way.

"Good evening, Kyle," Ray greeted automatically.

"I'm glad I found you, Ray," replied Kyle, coming to a stop a hand's breadth away from Ray. He was still breathing heavily from his run. On one hand, he clutched a familiar-looking note.

"Oh!" Ray remarked. "That's my request you got there."

"Right," said Kyle. "It was the last for the day, and I was afraid I couldn't talk to you about it before sunset. But then I remembered that you often went out for a stroll, so I thought, why not go to you then?"

"Ah, yeah," nodded Ray. An awkward pause followed his words, and for a moment, neither could fill it. Then:

"Well, anyway, what can I help you with?" asked Kyle.

"Um, in the note," Ray began, "I said that I'm working on this project...um." Inwardly, Ray berated himself for not explaining things further in his request. "Er, that is, it's kind of a drawing project. I wanted to draw Alvarna's flora and fauna and list their medicinal purposes."

"Oh, that's great, Ray!" replied Kyle. "But, well, what exactly can I help you with?"

"Um, you see, I want to begin my project by drawing the wild grasses in your field. So, well, I was wondering if I could drop by before my work at the clinic starts and maybe do some sketches. Uh...it doesn't have to be every day, and I promise I won't get in your way—"

"That's totally fine with me, Ray. Don't worry." Kyle's smile was warm and full of encouragement.

"Well then, if that's all, feel free to drop by anytime." Kyle rested his hand on Ray's shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze. "And, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, all right?"

"All right."

* * *

The first week, Ray dropped by every other day. He still had some chores to wrap up at the clinic, and he only stayed for half an hour at most. Kyle got up a lot earlier than Ray and he was often already at some other part of Alvarna tending to his crops when Ray visited the farm.

Ray poked at the wild grasses and even studied some of Kyle's seasonal crops. The grass grew lush in Kyle's field, no doubt because he tended to them as lovingly as he did the rest of his crops. They were due another cut, and he briefly imagined Kyle swinging his sickle, the muscles on his arms flexing as he swung with grace and strength.

The Tuesday of the second week, Ray woke up a little earlier. He was oddly spirited that morning, perhaps because he had finished all his chores at the clinic late last night and knew that he had only his personal project to look forward to for the near future. Ray had situated himself on one of the stumps in the uncleared part of Kyle's field and was studying quite intently the foliage that grew around it when Kyle came down the granite steps that were carved into the hill beside his home. He held his watering can in one hand and his sword in the other. His hair was matted to his forehead and his sun-browned skin was drenched in sweat. Ray gawked at the young farmer.

"Hi, Ray! Didn't think you'd be here still."

"Oh! Right!"

Ray totally forgot the time. His mother was probably furious at him by now. He gave Kyle an apologetic nod and barely had the wits to throw in a hasty "hello and goodbye" before he made a dash for the clinic.

Kyle spared the dust trail that Ray made one amused look before he turned to the stump where the young man had supposedly spent that morning sketching plants.

"What's this now?"

* * *

The knock on the door was expected. What surprised Kyle was that it came at 6 AM, on the dot. The young man who greeted him at his front porch was very different from the Ray that Kyle had known since settling in Alvarna. This Ray still wore bed hair. His blue-grey eyes were doe-wide and still

bleary. Only two buttons were actually buttoned properly on his green smock. His right cheek had a faint red line, undoubtedly from a crease in his pillow. In the privacy of Kyle's mind came one thought, unbidden:

_So...cute..._

"Go-good m-morning, K-Kyle...um," greeted Ray meekly.

Kyle had to pinch the bridge of his nose before things could get any worse. Who knew Ray had such a cute stutter?

"Ray," Kyle greeted, when he finally gathered his wits about him. "Why don't you come in?"

Ray followed Kyle into his home, head bowed, meek as a lamb. Before Ray could further embarrass himself, Kyle took down the sketchbook from his shelf and returned it to its rightful owner.

"Um...th-thank you..."

"I'm sorry about yesterday, Ray. If I'd known you'd react that way..."

"N-No! No...it's okay. You did g-good, actually..."

"Well, how did your mom take it?"

"I m-made it just in time. Barely. It was all thanks to you, K-Kyle..."

For some reason, Kyle was discomfited with the soft rasp in Ray's voice. It was an unusual sound coming from him, and it came to Kyle's mind that it was a rather private detail about the young man.

Kyle didn't even want to think about what he felt about that idea.

"Well, anyway, you better take good care of that sketchbook of yours," piped Kyle.

"Y-Yes, I-I will," Ray replied.

"And perhaps someday, you could show me a few of the sketches you've done?"

"Oh!" Ray's eyes went wide in blatant surprise. "You haven't gone through my sketchbook?"

"But why would I do that, Ray?" Kyle's head was cocked to the right and he wore a chinky-eyed smile. "I wouldn't want to impose on you like that."

Something squeezed at Ray's heart. When it let go, Ray felt a tingle spread throughout his body, to the very tips of his fingers and toes. It was an immensely pleasant feeling. Unfortunately, it also robbed Ray of his voice at the moment. Luckily, Kyle was looking somewhere else or he'd have gotten a front-row seat to the worst blush Ray has ever had in his life.

"Seeing that you're here, would you like to have breakfast with me? I'm afraid it's just coffee and oatmeal, though..."

"S-sure..."

The word hadn't even left Ray's lips when Kyle made a bee-line for his kitchenette.

* * *

Ray took to coming earlier in the mornings to work on his sketches. He and Kyle didn't always have breakfast together because only Kyle could get up at 6 AM every single day. But he and Kyle found ways to arrange their schedules so they'd have time for meaningful conversations. It was often after Ray finished his rounds of Messhina Valley, Padova Mountains, and the Trieste Forest. Ray would be sitting on the steps to Kyle's house, nursing the coffee canister that Kyle had left on the porch for him before heading out, his sketchbook lying closed on his lap. Kyle would come down at around 8 AM to begin work on his field and he and Ray would chat about anything and everything while Ray sketched his plants. Then, a few minutes before 9, Ray would let himself into Kyle's home to wash the empty canister and then return to the clinic to begin his own day-job.

Ray couldn't imagine it having been any way different. It wasn't difficult at all to get along with Kyle. He and Kyle actually had a lot of common interests aside from the plants and animals of Alvarna. Ray found that he liked talking with Kyle about music (monk's chanting, which nobody else in the village even remotely considered to be anything but noise), books (adventure stories are always a hit with Ray, although he admits to having a soft spot for children's books, which Kyle totally respects), and food (rich foods are far more beneficial than the light, diet-friendly dishes that most of the village girls preferred). It was, in fact, terribly easy to get along with Kyle. And Ray couldn't imagine not being Kyle's friend. Kyle was the best friend he had ever had, truth be told. Ray could honestly say that no one else in Alvarna understood him better.

Ray was contemplating all this that morning instead of actually working on his sketches. He was down to the last specie of grass that grew on Kyle's field. Ray refused to admit to himself that he was merely dragging things out. He didn't want to think too closely about the part of him that wanted to remain this way--sitting on the front steps of Kyle's home, watching the guy work on his field, sweat-soaked shirt long-discarded and being aired on a branch, his back arching up beautifully as he swings his hoe up...

It was then that Ray realized that Kyle was looking straight at him. Before he knew it, the young farmer was making a bee-line toward him. Panic stirred in Ray's gut...

"What's on your mind, Ray? You looked so serious just then," said Kyle as he drew forward.

"Oh! Um..." Ray hastily searched his mind for a suitable reply. "I was just thinking about asking you for another favor. Um, that is..."

"Yes?" Kyle's eyes had an odd gleam. In the right light, he would have looked like a hungry predator.

"Well, you see, I'm out of things to draw in your field. And, um, I was hoping I could accompany you on your trips to Trieste Forest t-to—I" _watch you_ "—find other stuff to draw."

Kyle's sharp ears caught the slight stutter. He didn't know what to make of it though, so he filed it in the back of his mind for later. It took him a beat to realize that Ray was waiting for his reply.

"Well, it's quite dangerous inside—"

"I know that. But that's why y-you'll be...you'll b-be there!" That was definitely a stutter, and was there also a blush? Kyle couldn't be sure, but Ray's clenched fists were unmistakable. He didn't think the poor guy even realized how tightly he gripped his pencil.

Kyle tried his best to calm his mind. He had to think rationally. He was a responsible citizen. He shouldn't be endangering the lives of others recklessly even though they had asked for it themselves. Ray was better off contenting himself with sketches of Kyle's field. It was safer that way. There was no way he'd jeopardize Ray's safety just for some drawings.

"All right."

Kyle's words surprised the both of them.

"Thank you. And, uh, I have to go now."

Kyle could only nod as Ray got up and left. The rest of the morning sped by in a confused blur. Kyle's mind was firmly lodged on those two words he had told Ray earlier. What in the world was he thinking when he agreed to Ray's request!? His anxiety over the whole affair only abated when, late in the afternoon, Kyle returned to his home for a quick bathroom break when he spotted the coffee canister airing out on his kitchen shelf.

There was a note stuck to it: _Meet you tomorrow at Trieste Forest entrance._

Well, there was no helping it now, Kyle thought. He'll just have to see what tomorrow brings. The best he could do, perhaps, was to meet it halfway.

* * *

Kyle was hoping that Ray would drop by at his home for breakfast. It wasn't to be, of course, since Ray would definitely want to minimize the chances that Kyle would refuse to take him to Trieste Forest. Not that Kyle wasn't thinking about convincing Ray to take back his request. All these musings, of course, were rendered moot when Kyle spotted Ray just where the note said he'd be.

"I see you're not giving me much choice about this," Kyle said, determined to sound stern.

Ray shook his head. "I'm not giving you any choice, Kyle. You're just going to have to bear with me for a little while longer today."

Kyle sighed. "So be it."

A few minutes later, both Ray and Kyle lay panting on the grass beside the river running west of the Forest Clearing.

"Those Pom-Poms can be tough," said Ray, between breaths.

"Yeah, if you're careless," Kyle replied. He half-sat up as he turned his body towards Ray, resting his weight on one elbow. "But you held up your end of the fight, Ray. Frankly, you surprised me."

Ray shoved Kyle's elbow and the other boy fell with an audible "oomph!"

"Sorry...NOT!" Ray delivered his mock apology in sing-song.

Kyle stood up and brushed the grass from his workpants. He jogged up to his field, poked around at some of the creepers, then plucked a plump pink melon out. He held it up to the light, presumably to check for marks or bruises. Ray thought that it was such a gorgeous sight that he scrambled to capture it in his sketchbook.

"Whatcha doing there, Ray?"

"Just a sec, Kyle," mumbled the artist.

Kyle just shrugged and proceeded to the river to wash the pink melon and slice it up. For a while, it was only the sounds of water lapping around Kyle's bare feet and the scritching of Ray's charcoal pen, and these sounds were quickly absorbed by the noises of the forest surrounding them. But then, the scritching stopped and Kyle got out of the river and went straight to Ray's side.

"Ready to show me now?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."

It barely registered in Kyle's mind that there was an odd tone to Ray's reply, almost like he and Kyle were talking about two different things. The greater part of Kyle's attention, however, was focused on the sketchbook being offered to him. He swapped it with the plateful of slices of pink melon, hardly noticing as Ray's fingers brushed his own.

It was a sketch of him holding up a freshly-picked fruit. The crinkled surface of the pink melon was wonderfully detailed, the spidery lines arranged cleverly to give the fruit's roundness a semblance of depth. Kyle's own face was turned upwards to the light. Ray had only made a few clean strokes to show the lines of his face, but these were made precisely and in such a flattering yet accurate way. The Kyle in the drawing was raising his harvest bounty up to the sky, his entire body in a splendid graceful arc that spoke of delight, gratitude, and awe for the wonders of nature. There were no words to describe the drawing. In Kyle's eyes, it was perfect.

Kyle looked up, and the first thing he saw was rosy lips, glistening with juice, cleaving to the soft, creamy pink flesh of the fruit as Ray bit into it, and his tongue lapping at the bitten flesh as he sucked its sweet fluid.

He thought: What would that mouth feel like, pressed to mine?

He thought: What would that tongue feel like, twining with mine?

He thought: It would be _perfect_.

"Perfect..."

The word hung in the air between them before Kyle swooped down to taste those sweet, moistened lips. In his memory, there would be no sweeter, more perfect moment than this.

-%-


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** Alvarna Rhapsody  
**Author:** abernaith  
**Summary:** All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.  
**Warnings:** This chapter is rated T.  
**Further Notes:** I was ready to write an all-out M-rated chapter but, sadly, it wasn't meant to be. T for language, though.  
**Disclaimer: **This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

**ALVARNA RHAPSODY**  
**A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production**

**THE SECOND MOVEMENT: Firsts**

_**Part III: Fire and Water**_

Kyle always struggled to get to the apple tree. Having to fight two orcs while fending off the constant barrage of flying arrows from two sides, and having to extinguish the summoning lights on top of that, was undoubtedly at the top of his list of Most Dreaded Chores.

Currently, he was down to one orc archer, the summoning lights and the other archer having been dispatched earlier. This particular monster, however, was proving quite resilient. Kyle decided that a well-placed fireball will end this ordeal when, to his alarm, he spotted too late the arrow flying straight at him. He took a quick back-step but misjudged the width of the stone bridge. His heel found no purchase at the end of his evasive maneuver, and all it earned him was a rough fall and a giant splash onto the waterfall basin below.

For a split second, Kyle had a surreal out-of-body experience. He watched himself fall into the water. Everything happened in excruciatingly slow motion. He even had time to admire the water droplets jetting up into the air and catching the light, briefly glittering like diamonds. As the droplets began their descent to earth and Kyle felt the tug of Real Time reasserting itself, a thought crossed his mind.

_There's certainly more than one way to take a bath._

* * *

Only a handful of people in town knew anything much about Jake, other than the fact that his elven father ran the village's Inn and that he was apprenticed to Tanya the Smith. None but the people closest to him, for instance, knew that Jake was fond of bathing. It was, ostensibly, for purely hygienic purposes. Working at a forge all day didn't exactly have one smelling like roses. Jake lent himself to the sweat and grime of a hard day's toil quite well, but like any other decent person, he actually liked feeling clean. Jake didn't actually ask Tanya to extend his afternoon tea breaks, but the two had a tacit agreement that while Tanya knew perfectly well how Jake liked to spend his breaks, she wasn't going to reveal to anyone, much less Jake himself, about the half-elf's penchant for baths.

However, Jake couldn't content himself with just one bath a day. More accurately, his own body wouldn't allow it. Jake still winced at the not-so-long-ago memory of his father sitting him down for A Talk. Jake thought that it was going to be _The Talk_ again—the one about how Egan met Jake's mother and no human or elven law could ever hope to come before true love. But then, Jake's father seemed oddly nervous as he caught his son's eye. Over the next half-hour, Egan delivered a halting lecture about the peculiar chemical reaction between elven puberty and human hormones and how, in most half-elves, feelings of anxiety and insecurity would start to build until, finally, the poor half-elf's emotions would peak in a huge sexual frenzy.

Egan looked at his son's eyes then and pronounced gravely, "Only constant vigilance and a hardened will can withstand such an onslaught. You will be wise to train yourself to prepare for this...ordeal...to save yourself future embarrassment."

Jake paled at the words. He vowed to himself to work hard on gaining self-control and discipline. He took more shifts in Tanya's forge. He spent his weekends meditating under the waterfall. He turned his mind inward to better study his psyche for chinks and cracks and possible signs of his "condition" worsening. Unfortunately, in his determination to harden his will against the chemistry of his body, Jake had inadvertently hardened his heart as well.

Jake actually thought that he would have been fine with that, that it was more important to get through puberty first with his dignity intact rather than tend to his non-existent social life, had not Kyle come into the picture.

At the thought of Kyle, Jake sneered. From the moment that Kyle took up residence in Alvarna, things changed. Everyone changed. Being in the forge for most of the day, Jake didn't really get to see much of the effects of the newcomer's settling in. However, Jake noticed that Tanya smiled a lot more nowadays. (She drank a lot less, too.) She also started paying more attention to her son, Roy, which was really something, since all she ever thought about before was making new weapons. Even Jake's father seemed more tranquil than melancholy. Jake knew how to read his father's moods, even behind the closed mask that his elven upbringing taught him to wear. He knew that his father was somehow happier, more excited about life, and perhaps even a little more enthusiastic about living in Alvarna. Jake had never gleaned such emotion from his father before, and the only person he could think of who could have incited this was Kyle.

And then, of course, there was Cecilia.

Jake cursed under his breath and punched a rock with his bare fist.

* * *

"Fuck...Kyle...!"

Kyle's ears perked at what he thought he heard. Did he hear it just now, but where from? He was soaked to the bone after that fall and the squelching sounds from his water-logged boots were becoming irritating. Ignoring his sorry state for the moment, Kyle headed down the river to where he thought he heard his name.

"Oh, dear..."

Whatever it was Kyle expected to find at the end of his search, it wasn't Jake. A naked Jake, at that, who seemed like he was in the middle of a bath.

"S-s-sorry...er..."

"Human!!!"

Quick as a lightning bolt, Jake's dagger was at Kyle's throat. Things had gone from bad to worse so quickly that Kyle didn't even have time to break out a sweat.

"What. Are. You. Doing. HERE." Jake hissed out every word from gritted teeth and they fell on Kyle's ears like drops of acid.

"I-I f-f...f-fell..." Haplessly, Kyle raised one shaking finger upward, pointing to the stone bridge above them. Jake's eyes darted up to the bridge, then snapped back to Kyle's own to give him a veritable death glare.

"Foolish human." The words had considerably less sting in them and the half-elf turned the point of his blade away from Kyle's throat. Kyle allowed himself a breath of relief.

"Thank you...er, I mean, s-sorry, too, Jake."

Kyle's words seemingly fell on deaf ears as Jake made an abrupt about-face and stomped back to the shade of the stone bridge where he had left his things. There was a shallow wooden bucket but it was overturned and Jake's shirt and pants were drenched in river water.

"Shit!"

Kyle gave his own drenched clothes a sad look. Then, without further ado, he started stripping.

"Kyle! What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm stripping," Kyle replied nonchalantly. Most of his attention was focused on unbuttoning his shirt.

"Well, why the hell are you doing it HERE!?"

Kyle gave Jake a nonplussed look. "Because all my clothes are wet. You may have noticed that we're quite deep into the forest here, and I don't want to be trekking back to the village in this state or I'd definitely catch a cold."

Jake gave Kyle a venomous look. Kyle returned the glare with stony impassivity. After a beat, Jake turned his eyes away.

"Tch. Whatever." The half-elf picked up his own clothes and headed straight for the nearest sun-baked boulder.

* * *

Kyle had long ago decided that there were some people in Alvarna who were just beyond his ability to comprehend. It didn't mean that he shunned these people or stopped trying to befriend them. Admittedly, he didn't try as hard as he normally did with others, like Ray and Dorothy, for example.

Jake was one of the few Alvarnians whom Kyle thought he'd never really get to be close friends with. Perhaps, in time, they'd be the sort of folk who'd nod at each other from opposite corners of a bar. It was a wonder, therefore, to find himself lying side by side with Jake in the remote depths of Trieste Forest. Granted, the circumstances leading to such an arrangement were awkward, humiliating, and almost violent. Kyle couldn't help marveling at the strange phenomenon, nevertheless. It was perhaps that same emotion, however, that loosened Kyle's tongue considerably, as he found himself turning to Jake and voicing his thoughts.

"You bathe here regularly, don't you?"

Jake frowned at the question but his eyes remained closed. Undaunted, Kyle continued.

"But why do you have to go to this neck of the woods when there's a perfectly good bathhouse back at the village?"

Jake's eyes snapped open and he threw Kyle a cold look. Kyle blinked at the momentary flash of silver in the half-elf's eyes.

"If I had known earlier that you aren't capable of controlling your yapping, I'd have made you dry your clothes someplace else."

This remark upset Kyle, who himself was surprised by the emotion. However, it was too late to stop the words from coming out.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Jake? You know perfectly well that there are too many orcs lurking about in this forest and if I'd hung my clothes somewhere else, they're guaranteed to be shredded by arrows the moment I turn my back! Can't you, for even just an hour, be a little more congenial for both our sakes?"

Kyle poured all his indignation into his tirade. He'd never admit it to anyone else, but he felt great just voicing his feelings for once. He had always forced himself to be amiable and, at the very least, polite to the Alvarnians, most of which had welcomed him into their village and into their lives. He owed it to those people to act civil to everyone else. However, it seemed that Jake's persistent rudeness had been the straw to break this camel's back.

For his part, Jake was considerably humbled after witnessing a very different side to the farm boy. It dawned on him then that he had definitely been too rude too often to Kyle, above everyone else. He had not given Kyle a single reason to merit the patience and tolerance the man had shown him. He couldn't quite bring himself to apologize outright though, but he tried to relax his stance and appear contrite.

When Kyle saw Jake's eyes soften and his shoulders slump, he was appeased. Who knew the key to understanding this half-elf was in his body language? Kyle let himself drop back onto the grassy bank. He turned his face to the sky and laughed softly. Inwardly, he was giving himself a metaphorical pat on the shoulder for hitting two birds with one stone.

When the sun climbed a little higher, Kyle got up to check on their clothes. They still felt a little too damp for his liking, so he went to his backpack instead and dug out some apples.

"Hey, Jake. Catch!"

Jake was lying flat on his back with only a towel for cover and his arms over his eyes. For all that he appeared asleep, he caught the apple that Kyle threw at his head.

"Nice one."

Kyle took a bite of his own apple and the loud crunch seemed to stir something in Jake, for he sat up just then and gave Kyle the briefest of smiles. Kyle tried not to look too shocked by that though, as it seemed Jake still had something to say.

"Ever wondered what happened to all those apples you gave to Tanya?"

Kyle shook his head. "Why? What happened to them?"

Jake hefted the apple in his hand. Its red skin would have paled under full sunlight had it not been against Jake's paler, almost snow-white complexion.

"I bet it was Roy who told you about apples being her favorite fruit."

"No, it was Douglas, actually," replied Kyle. "But why—I mean, what happens to them, Jake?"

"Tanya makes her own liquor, of course. She's pretty picky about the stuff she drinks. She makes the best apple cider I've tasted though."

"Oh."

Well, that was certainly an interesting fact about Tanya. Kyle always wondered if she dropped by Natalie's clinic like Douglas and Gordon. If she ever did. This new fact about Tanya though had cast a new light on the town's resident smith. In hindsight, Kyle had always had this feeling that Tanya was a bit of a loner. Perhaps that was why she was the only person, apart from Jake's immediate relations, that the half-elf got along with decently.

"Can I ask you something, Jake?"

"What is it?"

Jake's voice had this innocent ring to it, so trusting that Kyle almost bit back the question on the tip of his tongue. It must have been the heat then that got to his brain.

"Why do you take baths all the way out here?"

It occurred to Kyle that he had done something gravely wrong. From the way Jake's face turned an angry red, Kyle decided that he had to rectify the situation or die trying.

"I mean, you know, this place is so far from the village and there isn't anybody who goes here except me, and I don't come this far too often either. I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe it's the best place for—"

"Why the fuck do you have to be so nosy about everyone else's business, Kyle? This is exactly why I hate humans! You're all so fucking nosy! Just how bad do you wanna know, huh?"

Something sharp stabbed at Kyle's gut. What did he do wrong? He was just trying for a more meaningful conversation here. How on earth did it get so ugly so fast?

"I was just trying to—" Kyle's attempt at explaining was cut off by Jake's vicious glare.

"You were trying to say that maybe this is the best place for masturbating, I KNOW. Fuck, Kyle! I actually thought better of you. It never crossed my mind that you'd deliberately humiliate—"

"JAKE! LISTEN TO ME!" Kyle yelled desperately. "Listen! I was trying to say that it's the best place for thinking about the future. I mean it, I swear!"

In the silence that followed, even the sound of an apple dropping onto the soft grass was thunderous.

"Fuck."

A dilemma presented itself inconveniently just then. Kyle decided that solving it and sparing Jake the trouble was better than remaining between a furious half-elf and his clothes. As Kyle was already holding his own clothes, which had dried suitably during their argument, he had but to pocket the rather bruised apple he held, snatch his backpack with his freed hand, and make a mad dash out of the clearing. He'd have to find some other place in the forest where he can safely put on his clothes. It was a Tuesday, and he knew perfectly well that Yue was all the way at Blessia Island today, but Kyle still couldn't risk bursting out of the woods like a terrified doe, wearing only his birthday suit.

* * *

It had been several days since that awful conversation which left Kyle unduly stressed. The first omen of ill things to come was the cold he caught in his naked run through the forest. By that afternoon, Kyle was sneezing profusely. He opted to postpone his mining expedition in the deeper cave in Padova Mountains. He also decided not to ask Alicia for a rainy day any time soon. He couldn't afford to be running around doing chores and errands in his condition while rain poured steadily from the sky. That would be like chasing his death.

Kyle avoided Jake as much as possible, but then felt terrible about it later. This drove him inexplicably restless, and even Tanya, who only cared about swords, noticed it. He couldn't sleep well, and often woke up in the wee hours from amorphous nightmares. Dorothy actually offered him her latest batch of baked cookies, and only after much prompting did she admit that Barrett had sort-of dropped a hint or two about an "unusually absent-minded farm boy" yesterday afternoon at the Square. Ray had been more vocal about his concern, although Kyle declined the offer to be admitted at the clinic. He couldn't very well explain to Ray about his and Jake's parting words either. That would just have caused the young doctor-in-training unnecessary worry. When Kyle nodded off partway through one of Max's environmentalist speeches, the young Sainte-Coquille heir offered him a glass of Hushabye, but the drink failed to work its magic. When Cecilia stopped him at the bridge beside the clinic on her way to the bathhouse, Kyle didn't want to get his hopes up anymore.

"Kyle, I think this will really help you," said Cecilia.

"Um, thanks, I guess." Kyle took the round stone offered to him. He turned it in his hands and gave it a critical look. "What is it?"

"It's just a plain old stone, actually," replied Cecilia, a faint blush coloring her cheeks. "Apart from it's beauty, it hasn't the slightest bit of magic." She tipped her head down and her fringe hid her eyes.

"Um, but I like to think it gives me good luck."

"Oh," was all Kyle could say to that.

"I think it will give you good luck, Kyle. Please promise me you'll put it under your pillow tonight."

Kyle suppressed his urge to give Cecilia an incredulous look. He stuffed the stone in his pocket and cleared his throat.

"Erm, well, if that's the way you put it, I guess there's no harm in trying."

Cecilia looked up and her eyes were shining. At him. _What have I gotten myself into?_ Kyle thought.

"Thank you, Kyle! Thank you!"

There was an awkward moment when both parties thought that a hug was imminent and inevitable. But then, that moment passed. Inwardly, Kyle sighed in relief.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then, Kyle?" Cecilia asked shyly.

"Yeah, sure. You see me every day," Kyle replied, smiling to hide his nervousness.

"Okay. Good night, then, Kyle."

"Good night, Cecilia."

* * *

Kyle woke up at 6 AM on the dot. The gnawing ache at the back of his head that he'd been nursing for far too long was suddenly gone. He felt oddly energized, so much so that he almost literally bounced out of bed and went straight to work on his crops. It was an absolute miracle. Kyle dug out the round stone from under his pillow. Perhaps Cecilia knew something he didn't and the stone really did bring its bearer good luck. Kyle decided to keep the stone in his pocket, just to be on the safe side. He'd have to return it to Cecilia eventually today, but he thought she wouldn't mind if he kept it for a few more hours.

Kyle's wonderful mood lasted all the way to the stone bridge at Trieste Forest where it had all started. The problem now, however, was not an aggressive monster but a trail of empty bottles. Kyle stooped to pick one up by its neck. He sniffed daintily at its rim and caught the sharp scent of apple cider.

Kyle followed the trail of empty bottles to the side of the bridge where, a few days ago, he himself had fallen off. He looked over the side and searched the waterfall basin for a tell-tale sign. After a few frantic seconds of searching, he spotted Jake's body half-in, half-out of the water. He was lying face-down on the basin's edge, but thankfully, his head was fully out of the water. There was no quicker way to get to the half-elf so Kyle shrugged off his backpack and jumped off the bridge.

When Kyle finally dragged Jake's body onto the safety of the grassy bank, he spared a moment to catch his breath. His arms were aching from having to pull dead weight. At that thought, however, Kyle sprang into action again and quickly checked for Jake's pulse.

_Still there. Good._

Kyle was suddenly thankful that Ray had showed him some basic first aid stuff that one rainy afternoon. Who'd ever thought it would come in useful so soon?

"Jake? Jake?"

Kyle tried shaking Jake awake. The half-elf's eyes remained closed. His breathing was slow and steady.

Maybe he's asleep. Or...maybe unconscious?

Kyle raked his mind for more useful memories about Ray's one-day crash course on first aid. What was it that unconscious nearly-drowned victims needed at this point? The Heimlich maneuver? No, that was for people choking on stuff. Resuscitation, was it?

Kyle looked hard at Jake's face, which was free of anger and hate in repose. Kyle briefly imagined that this was another person altogether. It was deceptively easy. He rested his hands on Jake's shoulders and slowly bent down. Kyle was admittedly very nervous about what he was about to do and, as a consequence, his breathing became fast and shallow. The pounding of his heart overwhelmed his eardrums. His eyes unfocused as his lips neared contact with Jake's. It was that last thing that proved nearly fatal to Kyle. If it weren't for the heightened reflexes he'd developed over daily fights with the local monster population, the fist swinging wildly at him would have hit him square on the eye instead of glancing a still-formidable blow on his chin. Kyle felt the skin there burst. He figured that Jake managed to hit a blood vessel too, judging from his crimsoned knuckles.

"Get the fuck OFF me, human!"

So, it's back to human now, eh? Kyle thought wryly before he was violently shoved by the half-elf. Unfortunately, he failed to release his grip on Jake's shoulders and the both of them rolled down the grassy bank. When things stopped spinning, it was Jake who ended up on top this time. Kyle hastily let go of Jake's shoulders, but then his arms were practically squished under Jake's full weight and the half-elf knew it. What's more, he used the strength he had gained as an apprentice smith to bodily pin Kyle down. It was, Kyle thought, a rather hopeless situation for him.

"Why the fuck did Ceci have to give you that stone? Why a human? WHY YOU!?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kyle didn't even bother to curb his anger. In his position, who else would? "Get off of me right now!" He tried moving downwards to gain enough purchase to shove Jake off using his shoulders. Jake locked his legs around Kyle's and that took care of that.

"Where is it? Where is IT!?" Jake had this mad look in his eyes that actually scared Kyle. He was groping around Kyle's clothes, obviously searching for something. Kyle realized that Jake was looking for Cecilia's stone. His hand unconsciously went to his vest pocket.

"Fuck! Give it to me, human!"

"I said get the hell off of me!"

Focusing all his energy now on yanking Kyle's fingers from his protective hold over his vest pocket, Jake unwittingly eased his weight off Kyle's chest. The latter saw his chance to shove the young apprentice smith off him, but some primal urge took possession of him and instead he swung a wild blow that mirrored Jake's own move just a few moments ago. Jake, having more presence of mind than Kyle at the time, saw the punch coming and met it with an open palm. Kyle barely had the time to

comprehend Jake's move when his arms were yanked away from his chest and pressed to the sides of his body, where Jake held them down by his wrists.

Their bodies were pressed fully against each other, Kyle realized. He was breathing shallowly on the hollow of Jake's neck. Beads of sweat were pooling at the back of his neck, and this made Kyle notice how he held his head at such an odd angle. He tilted his head backward to ease off the cramp threatening to form on his nape when his eyes met Jake's, mere inches from his own and dripping acid.

"Fuck you, Kyle. Fuck. You."

Kyle honestly thought he was going to die. For a second there, he thought he saw his life flash before his eyes. But then maybe it was just a glint of silver from Jake's own mad eyes as he swooped down and—

There were no words to describe the shock Kyle felt when he completed that thought.

Jake, mad as hell, just swooped down and kissed him. Was still kissing him, in fact, and furiously.

Kyle's stomach sank. _Oh shit_, he thought. But then, wasn't he kissing back?

_Oh, SHIT_, he thought again.

The two boys spent the next few moments deepening their kiss while rutting against each other. There was no grace to it, no tenderness. It was all raw passion. When Kyle thought that he was about to perish from lack of oxygen, fortunately (or unfortunately), Jake broke off their kiss. His face was red and his eyes were wild, the pupils blown up so that his irises were reduced to the thinnest ring of silver. This gave him a very animalistic look, Kyle thought. He was about to voice this thought when Jake got off of him and up on his feet.

A bank of clouds hid the sun at that moment, but there was a deeper cast to the shadow on Jake's face. The look he gave Kyle right then squeezed at the young farmer's heart. And then the sun broke through the clouds again and Jake took off, fleeing from Kyle as shadow fled from light.

Kyle was still flat on his back when all of this occurred. He decided that it was too much of a bother to change his situation any time soon. He still had a lot of thinking to do and it had to be done as soon as possible. A thought came unbidden to his mind then: Jake's eyes may have been hooded but his lips were red and swollen. As he stood there, cast in momentary shadow, Kyle's eyes finally rested on the prominent bulge in the half-elf's pants. That bulge, he knew, was unmistakable.

Kyle glanced at his own trousers and his face heated at what he saw.

_Oh_. Shitshitshit.

He had a lot of thinking to do, for sure, but more besides, apparently.

-%-


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** Alvarna Rhapsody  
**Author:** abernaith  
**Summary:** All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.  
**Warnings:** Finally, a chapter that merits the M rating.  
**Further Notes:** Special thanks to Kitsune no Tora, who has kindly pointed out to me a few anomalies regarding how I rendered the appearances of certain characters. It is with great shame that I admit to this carelessness. I am really bad with faces, and apparently, this now applies to fictional faces, too. -_-; I hope to rectify my mistakes in the earlier chapters (i.e. Kyle's eye color, his hair color, and Jake's eye color—although I have a good fic-related excuse for that…um.) The only character whose facial features I am plenty sure about is Barrett. Oh, but then…I can't seem to recall his hair color right now… *covers face with hands* Thanks also goes out to Thoughtless7 and all the other readers (and future reviewers) of this fic. ^_^ Cheers!  
**Disclaimer: **This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

**ALVARNA RHAPSODY**  
**A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production**

**THE SECOND MOVEMENT: Firsts**

_**Part IV: Smooth Criminal**_

Max didn't often have such vivid dreams. Always, and especially after a glass of Hushabye before bed, he'd slip into the soft, warm depths of a dreamless state. Such a strong and impressionable dream, however, came to him that night, and it began in the strangest way.

Max opened his eyes to the ceiling in his own bedroom. The scent of peppermint lingered in the air. He got out of bed and opened the curtains, letting soft, silver moonlight slip soundlessly in. Max could only describe the scent that teased his nostrils as cold and silvery. He wondered idly if moonlight had a scent, and if it only manifested in dreams.

Max spent the next few minutes wandering around the house. The walls had an eerie blue tinge and moonlight glinted off the edges of surfaces. Max could have navigated the hallways with his eyes closed. He didn't care for the view; to him, it was nothing special. The air grew thick as he passed by his father's and Rosalind's rooms. He imagined he could hear his family breathing soft and deeply in bed as they moved through their own dream worlds. He briefly contemplated checking on them, but then decided in the end to return to his room. It was when he closed the door gently behind him that Max realized that the bed he had vacated was now very much occupied but not one but two bodies, writhing under his green silk sheets.

The mound occupying his bed was emitting the most sensual sounds. There were passionate moans and groans and Max had to bite his lip when his ears picked up the distinctive sound of flesh sliding against flesh. Something possessed him to draw closer to the bed, and then before he realized it, Max was tugging away the bedclothes.

His throat involuntarily closed up at the sight, and for one breathless moment, he waited for the two people to turn their heads his way in shame or anger. He didn't expect them to keep ignoring him. It took his heart a few more seconds to stop pounding so hard before Max decided that they were completely oblivious to his presence. And then he had to catch his breath in painful, shallow gasps when his throat muscles finally relaxed.

_This is a dream then_, thought Max. _I'm just dreaming myself being fucked by Kyle._

Max chuckled bitterly at the revelation. He brushed the tears at the corner of his eyes with a shaky thumb.

The two men before him spared him no attention. They were literally wrapped around each other. Max's body was arched over Kyle's form, his long hair a curtain over the other man's face as they kissed. The other Max took a moment to admire himself. There was something almost surreal about this dream phantom wearing his body. His hair and body wearing moonlight like a second skin as he moaned passionately into Kyle's mouth... Max wondered if he'd ever look like that in someone else's eyes. Kyle's smiling face suddenly popped in his head, then. Max was slightly disturbed by that thought, but not so much that he didn't give it due consideration.

A muffled cry distracted Max from his thoughts. The cry came from the phantom Kyle. Currently, he was clutching the phantom Max by the hips and grinding mercilessly into him. The phantom Max met Kyle's movements pound for pound, and he was emitting a soft keening noise. His lips were moving soundlessly, but Max didn't need to think too hard to guess at the words.

"So close...so _close_..."

Kyle was trying to speak through gritted teeth. His voice came out deep and rough.

"Let's......together...!"

"_F—_....ah! _Ah!_" It was Max, back bowing gracefully as he came. Kyle had gone stiff as stone beneath him. For a few moments, only their soft, shuddering breaths could be heard.

Max gulped unconsciously. The room was suddenly too hot.

* * *

Max woke up from his dream half-aroused and, strangely, half-disappointed. His heart was beating madly against his chest. His skin was clammy with sweat. There was a damp spot in the sheets that will be embarrassing to explain to Cecilia in the morning.

Max looked at the clock on his night stand. It told him, with utmost impassivity, that it was only a quarter to 1 AM. He sighed, then got out of bed.

Walking around town this late at night--or this early in the day, depending on your perspective—was a singular experience for Max. The night painted the village in alien colors that gave an atmosphere of solitude and emptiness. The houses cast long shadows that seemed to shiver in the wind.

The moonlight cast flat silver planes and conjured deep shadows in the benches and fountain of Sainte-Coquille park. Max marveled at how the world seemed suddenly so flat and dull, so lifeless. It made him feel as if he was the only person breathing in this space. He moved quickly through the park and went down to the docks. He had planned to sit on the pier and let the ocean speak to him. With luck, it would have exorcised the strange dream from his mind. However, when he got there, he spotted a familiar head of brown hair.

Max did a double-take at the sight. Kyle was the person he least expected to find here. A part of him even wished that Kyle wouldn't be here. Taking a closer look at the slumped shoulders and hunched form of the young farmer though, Max quickly abandoned his own demons and went to comfort his friend.

"Hey, Kyle," Max greeted. He sat beside the other man in one graceful movement.

"Max, it's late," Kyle remarked in lieu of greeting. Max smirked. He shrugged off his white coat and draped it over Kyle's shoulders.

"Yeah, and you're bound to get a cold sitting out here, all alone."

They sat side-by-side for a few moments, letting the silence around them grow warm and comfortable. Until Kyle broke it with an odd choking sound. Max thought he had misheard, at first, but then he saw the tears.

"Dear me, what's wrong?"

Kyle made snuffling noises and, quite unconsciously, plucked the sleeve of Max's coat to wipe his nose with. Max was too concerned about Kyle's sudden outburst of emotion to care or even notice this.

"You've got to spill it some time, you know," he suggested tentatively. His arm automatically went around Kyle's shoulders and the other man pressed onto Max's side. Max tried to hide his quite involuntary shudder by rubbing and patting Kyle's back.

"Have you ever fallen in love, Max?"

At first, Max was too alarmed to say anything. But then he heard Kyle clearing his throat. _Maybe he thought I didn't hear it the first time. I'd better say something!_

"I've fallen in love lots of times, of course."

"Really?" Max was lying through his teeth and Kyle was too distraught to catch it. The young Sainte-Coquille forced himself not to roll his eyes.

"I've never fallen in love."

The words were like a ton of bricks falling on Max's head. He stopped thinking. He stopped breathing. He'd have just stopped living then and there had not Kyle's voice pulled him back to earth.

"Uh, Max, you're squeezing my shoulder too hard."

"Oh!" Max took his hand off Kyle's shoulder. His arm was still resting on Kyle's back, so his hand was left hanging awkwardly. Kyle, oblivious to Max's suffering, turned his body toward Max. His head was bowed so Max could only see red-brown hair, nothing else. Max suddenly realized that his heart was pounding a mile-a-minute.

"I wish I knew what love was. If I did, I'd know to name this feeling in my chest. I'd be able to tell who I'm in love with and not be so confused. I just hate this—I hate myself right now! I hate being so stupid about love!"

Max looked sadly at the head of hair in front of him. He leaned forward so he can tuck Kyle's head under his chin. Kyle obligingly shifted and the two arranged themselves into a more comfortable embrace.

"Kyle," Max began, "you really are stupid."

Kyle chuckled softly into Max's shirt.

"But you're my rival, so you can't just give up. You're better than this, you know.

"Love? What is love, really? Is it that sinking feeling in your gut when someone gives you a special look? Is it the thought of the person's face coming unbidden into your mind and you, utterly distracted by that face, feel that nothing else in the world is as worthy of contemplation? Can it be measured by time spent in the company of your beloved, or the time spent in agony of that beloved's absence?

"When do you feel love the keenest? Is what you're feeling love at all?"

Halfway through his speech, Max felt Kyle's breathing slip into a regular rhythm. He knew that Kyle was dozing, but he went on talking anyway.

"What is love, Kyle, but a regular feeling, just like any other feeling in the world? It can be strong and forceful, sweeping your feet off the ground like a hurricane. It can be small and subtle, creeping through your house like a thief in the night. It can assault you at the oddest times and the strangest circumstances. But I don't think you have to go out of your way to find love, Kyle.

"Love is going to come to you when it wants to. And when it does, you'll know it for what it is."

* * *

Both Kyle and Max woke up in their respective beds thinking that what happened the night before was but a dream. That was, until Kyle saw that it was already 10 AM and he felt the various aches in his body triple their assault, and until Max saw that his outfit was clearly missing something today.

It was around noon when Kyle finally dropped by at the Sainte-Coquille mansion. Rosalind was out with her girl friends and Herman went down to the kitchens to make a last minute addition to the lunch menu. Kyle found Max sitting forlornly on the steps to the second floor.

"Good of you to drop by," Max remarked without looking up. "I was beginning to think that I shall have to absent myself from the village for the whole day."

"What?" asked Kyle. "Just because you don't have your coat?"

"It's not _just_ a coat, you moron," Max snapped. "That's a cashmere duster with genuine wolf fur for its lining and ivory buttons! And it's MY coat, so it's never JUST a coat!"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Kyle held up his hands in mock surrender. Max seemed satisfied by that though, and he even cracked a smile.

"Uh, look, Max... About last night..."

Max threw Kyle a curious look. "If you want us to talk about it, then can we do it somewhere more private?"

"Uh, sure," said Kyle.

He followed meekly as Max led him up to his room. Max settled himself on the bed while Kyle stood rather awkwardly before him.

" I wonder who gave you that red scarf, Kyle? It looks...handy."

Kyle's hand darted to the scarf hanging loose around his neck. He had grabbed it from the shelf on his way out. His throat had been a little sore this morning. It seemed to Kyle that his love life wasn't doing his health any good. However, he didn't want to discuss all that with Max just then, so he pushed on with his own business.

"I want to talk about last night, Max—"

"Tell you what, Kyle," Max interrupted. "I won't speak of it to anyone else if you do one little thing for me."

Kyle looked puzzled. "And what thing might that be?"

"Put on my coat."

"Huh? I don't get why I have to do this." Kyle looked even more bewildered now. "And we're friends, Max. So I don't think you'd really follow through on your—"

"It's a _simple_ request, Kyle." Max's voice was deceptively light. "One I'd like you to accomplish right this minute."

Kyle looked at the coat he was holding. He remembered pressing his nose into the soft, warm folds and imagining a garden of roses as he breathed in deeply. He looked down at Max and was surprised to see an unmistakable predatory gleam in the Sainte-Coquille heir's eyes.

"Okay."

Kyle felt a bit nervous shrugging on Max's coat. He didn't really want to think about why he felt nervous. He didn't want to think that Max's look just now had made him nervous. Max was his friend, for heaven's sake, his _friend_. He tried to tell himself that he was simply obliging his _friend's_ request. And while he was at it, he also prayed that the fine cloth wouldn't snag on his considerably rough and worn work-clothes as his arms slid awkwardly into the long sleeves of the coat.

Kyle was so focused on the task before him that he failed to notice Max rising from the bed and walking slowly around him. When Kyle had felt he had done his utmost and couldn't make the rich coat fit poor him any better, Max's hands were suddenly on its white sleeves.

"Well, I have to say it hangs better off me. Let's see if I can make it fit better, though."

Suddenly, Max was tugging the coat off him by the sleeves. The fine cloth slid with treacherous ease down his shoulders and bunched up at his elbows. Kyle saw that Max was trying to trap his arms behind his body with the coat, and he tried to fight it by crossing his arms in front of his chest. But then, when he had raised his arms to do so, Max caught both his wrists in one swift movement.

"I knew this would come in handy."

Without warning, Max pulled the red scarf around Kyle's neck and deftly bound Max's forearms with it. With the rest of his arms, from elbows up, inconveniently trapped by the coat as well, it suddenly dawned on Kyle how quickly Max had rendered him helpless. With his hands freed from their task of restraining Kyle's wrists, Max grabbed Kyle by the shoulders and fixed him with a hungry look.

"We don't need to talk anymore, Kyle. We just need to feel."

Then, Max hooked Kyle's left foot and pulled it forward. Kyle lost his balance and both he and Max went down with a loud thud. Max reached behind Kyle's head to loosen his bandanna and fix it over Kyle's mouth. Then, looking Kyle straight in the eye, he pressed his lips to the cloth over the young farmer's mouth. Kyle went stiff as a board. A determined Max reached down to the waistband of Kyle's shorts and started tugging it downwards. Kyle writhed in vain. Max's thighs were straddling his hips firmly; it seemed there was no escaping his advances.

"Please, _please_, Max, please..."

Kyle's voice was muffled by the bandanna and so Max barely understood the words. But he understood perfectly the pleading look in Kyle's brown eyes. Earlier that day, while waiting for dawn, he ran through dozens of scenarios in his head of how his seduction of the young farmer would conclude. In one, Kyle stormed out after flashing him a look of anger and betrayal. In another, poured love out of his eyes as he peeled off Max's clothes with worshipful slowness. In none of those scenarios, however, did Kyle end up pleading for Max to stop.

Right now, there was no anger in his eyes, no hate, not a single accusation. There was only that look of absolute trust and surrender, silently asking Max to control himself, to do the right thing.

Max turned his eyes away and fought the stinging tears from falling. He just couldn't believe that the rival he appointed for himself would show such vulnerability!

Without looking, his hand reached for the bandanna and tugged it up a little. Only when it covered Kyle's eyes sufficiently did Max feel safe to turn his tear-streaked face to the other man.

"I'm not sorry I did this, Kyle. I had to try. You have my word though that I'll never try again." There was a brief pause as Max shifted his position. "After _this_." And then he pressed his palm onto Kyle's crotch while he sucked at the tender flesh of Kyle's neck at the same time. The twitch in his pants mortified Kyle, but there was no helping it now.

Thankfully, Max refrained from reacting to what he most certainly felt in Kyle's pants. He sat up and gently untied the scarf binding Kyle's arms. And then, he got up and off of Kyle altogether. From the sound of his footsteps, Kyle guessed that Max was moving toward the door. He didn't dare remove the bandanna over his eyes, though. Not just yet.

"You can leave whenever you want. I won't be back until later. I, uh, need to cool off." Max sounded embarrassed. Kyle didn't bother to guess at what.

"And, Kyle, we're still friends, right?"

Kyle actually had to think about that. It was only for a few seconds, but Max nonetheless gave a loud sigh of relief when he replied in the affirmative.

When Kyle said "yes," Max wanted to whoop for joy. He realized belatedly that he hadn't planned for what would happen if he lost the closest friend he had in all of Alvarna. But Kyle hadn't said no, so all was, practically, as well as can be.

His heart made lighter by that thought, Max threw one of his regular jokes at the young farmer who was currently blind-folded and lying prone on his bedroom floor.

"If I had known that you'd be such a pretty sight like this, I'd have kept this scarf when you first offered it to me."

"I never gave it to you, you idiot!" Kyle protested, finally pulling off the bandanna.

But Max had already left the room.

-%-


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** Alvarna Rhapsody  
**Author:** abernaith  
**Summary:** All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.  
**Warnings:** This chapter is a K+, despite what the title may suggest.  
**Further Notes:** This is the final installment of Volume I of this series. There'll be a short break before I start posting again (more or less a few days) so I'd have time to plan and polish.  
**Disclaimer: **This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

**ALVARNA RHAPSODY**  
**A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production**

**SIDE STORY: Anatomy Lesson**

It was one of those rare days when rain came both unannounced and unwanted.

Kyle could see the window from where he slept. It was pouring so hard out there, and only 6 AM by his clock. He knew from experience that wet weather lasted all day in Alvarna when it came. It visited rarely enough that Kyle came to expect a sunny day when he woke up unless he had paid Alicia to meddle with the weather the day before.

And here he was hoping to experience his first picnic breakfast with Ray out by the waterfall near his home.

The knock on the door came when Kyle would have expected it, had the weather been any friendlier. Standing on his porch, with an impossibly cheery smile on his face, was Ray. He was holding an umbrella in one hand and a picnic basket in the other. Kyle quickly relieved Ray of his heavier load and ushered him inside.

"Tell me, what possessed you to go out in this weather?"

"And a good morning to you too, Kyle," Ray said, in lieu of replying. That too-cheery smile was still stuck on his face.

"Stand closer to the fireplace, will you?" Kyle went on, too absorbed in mothering Ray at the moment to notice the slight mockery.

Ray obediently went to Kyle, who had himself moved closer to the fireplace, and allowed the young farmer to help him out of his smock. Strong winds had blown rain under his umbrella partway through his trek to Kyle's farm, so the young physician-in-training was actually grateful that Kyle had wasted no time in building a big fire using rune magic.

"I'm sure it has come to your attention that outdoor activities are out of the question today," said Kyle.

Kyle set the picnic basket on the floor and stepped up behind Ray, pressing his body against the other man's. He started rubbing his hands up and down Ray's shoulders, purportedly to warm them up.

"We could still do the picnic, in here," Ray replied, turning his head a bit to catch Kyle's eye.

The young farmer wasn't even half-convinced, but he nodded mutely in assent. With a long sigh, he allowed his companion to step away from him and busy himself with the contents of the picnic basket.

Later, sprawled on rug by the fireside, Kyle concluded that rain and a stay-home picnic day wasn't such a bad combination. His head lay comfortably on Ray's lap, while the latter alternated between reading a medical text (which Kyle couldn't help commenting on) and running his fingers through the young farmer's soft, thick head of hair.

"So what time do you need to head back?"

"Mom gave me the whole day off, actually. The clinic hardly sees anyone else but us when it's pouring like this."

"That's great."

"See?" Kyle could hear the smile in Ray's voice. "Today's bad weather turned out to be good for us."

"But what's there for us to do, seeing as we're cooped in here for the day?"

"Oh, I can think of plenty of things I want to do with you."

Kyle was sure that Ray was just teasing him, but he still couldn't stop the blush heating his cheeks. A hand slapped his forehead playfully.

"Silly! I wasn't thinking like that!" Ray said, his tone light as laughter.

"I'd like to draw you, actually," he went on.

"Oh. Okay..."

"So go fix us some hot chocolate while I set up my drawing things."

Then Ray bent down to press a chaste kiss on Kyle's nose. Kyle stood up to do Ray's bidding, a wide grin on his face that Ray could feel from all the way across the room.

* * *

Kyle flipped idly through the pages of Ray's sketchbook. It was the first one he'd used, back when they hardly knew each other. There were lots of doodles of insects and rough sketches of trees and shrubs. There were also pages upon pages of impressions of different kinds of leaves, their veined undersides creating fine, white cracks in the shadowy, charcoal clouds. Kyle could only recognize a few by their general shape. While reading the labels, he was surprised to find that the species of grass out in his field turned out to be very different in other ways apart from color, which made them even more unique and beautiful.

Kyle understood the love for detail that Ray showed in his drawings. However, he knew that Ray's appreciation for the smallest of things was to a far higher degree than his own. It proved how deeply sensitive the young amateur artist can be, although this far from defined Ray's entire personality. Ray was also strong and very disciplined. He was neat in all his ways. He was always so calm, so patient, so giving. He was so very different from—

Kyle's hand froze halfway through turning a page. He didn't want to think of Barrett, but it was too late now. He knew he should stop fretting or Ray might catch on to his mood. He needed a suitable distraction so he tried to focus on the book before him. On the open page, rendered in simple lines of charcoal, was a sketch of himself cutting grass in his field. Guilt sank in his gut like a heavy stone.

"What's the matter, Kyle?" Ray's voice shook Kyle from his gloom. The young farmer turned his head toward his companion and gave what he hoped was a convincing smile.

"Your old sketches brought back memories, that's all. Say, are you drawing already?"

"Mm, just a practice sketch to get my hand warmed up."

Kyle got up and went to Ray's side of the blanket. He perched his chin on Ray's shoulder to get a better look at his sketchbook.

It was a sketch of him, rather unfinished. His body was but a long shadow stretched out on the rug. Kyle presumed the rough shapes in the background were the beginnings of a hearth. Ray had drawn the outline of his face in profile but had yet to fill in his features. For a moment, Kyle wondered what Ray had seen in his face. How long had he been watching his face?

"It seemed like a good subject, but I got distracted," said Ray, breaking into Kyle's thoughts. He was pointing at Kyle's arm in the drawing. It was obviously unfinished, and it seemed that Ray was having some particular trouble with it.

"I couldn't get the angle right. I kept on thinking about how the bones of the arm should be arranged, and that just added to my confusion," continued Ray. "Human anatomy is my biggest weakness, you see." The young physician-in-training sighed.

"But that wouldn't do, doctor," said Kyle, mock-condescending.

It took a moment for Ray to follow up, but he made up for it when he showed the stern mask of a grave physician.

"No, it wouldn't do at all," agreed Ray. Kyle thought he'd have pulled it off had not the spark of mischief in his eyes betrayed him. "Tell me, young man, would you care to donate your body to science?"

Kyle's eyes lit with laughter; all his gloom now forgotten. "For the sake of science; why, there is no nobler deed!" He offered up his arm to a smiling Ray.

Ray took Kyle's wrist in one hand and set his other hand on Kyle's shoulder, feeling for the bone with clinical precision. His hands were very gentle, and it came to Kyle then that Ray was really shaping up to be a good doctor.

From the shoulder bone, he let his hand trail down Kyle's bicep.

"This is your humerus."

Ray's voice came out oddly hushed. Kyle fought down a giggle; it seemed the young physician-in-training took his medical studies seriously.

Midway down Kyle's arm, he pressed his thumb down on the inside of the elbow.

"That's where the bone ends, and where the other two begin."

He bent Kyle's arm so the hand was level with its shoulder, then ran a finger from Kyle's wrist down to the tip of his elbow.

"The radius..."

His finger traced a slightly different path back up to Kyle's wrist again.

"...and the ulna."

His thumb began drawing lazy circles on Kyle's wrist.

"Here are your carpal bones..."

His fingers traveled up Kyle's palm, feeling for the bones beneath the work-roughened flesh.

"Your metacarpal bones..."

He spread his fingers wider, letting each of his digits trail a path up Kyle's calloused fingers.

"And your finger bones, the phalanges..."

Kyle could no longer tell whether Ray's voice had gotten too soft to hear or his own hearing was simply failing as his brain surrendered to the onslaught of physical pleasure triggered by Ray's innocent touch. All Kyle knew by then was that his hand felt warm from Ray's delicate ministrations. He let his fingers close over Ray's own. He saw the flash of surprise in Ray's eyes, but it faded away in another moment. Ray closed his own fingers over Kyle's and drew their joined hands to his lips for a soft, gentle kiss.

Eyes closed, he whispered to their entwined fingers, "And that's the end of our anatomy lesson for today."

-%-


End file.
